Trump Is Considering More Data Centers on Public Lands Than Previously Known

Update: After publication, Valar Atomics reached out to The Washington Sun and confirmed it had submitted an application for survey access at a 10,200 acre site in Utah for nuclear power development and a data center. After considering the site, the company has decided to no longer pursue the project, a spokesperson for the company told The Sun.

The Trump administration is considering proposals for at least 12 data centers and data center-related infrastructure projects to be built on federal public lands — far more than previously known.

The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing data center-related proposals covering at least 17,600 acres of public land across six states — Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, according to public records of right-of-way proposals reviewed by The Washington Sun.

Many of the projects under consideration haven’t been previously reported, and aren’t easily accessible on BLM’s website. Several local officials told The Sun they weren’t aware of the federal government’s deliberations, prompting transparency concerns among community advocates.

“If there are places where communities think it is appropriate to build data centers, focus on those,” said Aaron Weiss, director of the conservation group Center for Western Priorities. “The Trump administration needs to stop cutting the public out of public land management. The solution is more public notice and more opportunities for stakeholders to shape projects on the front end.”

Building data centers on public lands, as well as supporting infrastructure like access roads and water pipelines, has emerged as a priority for the Trump administration, which directed BLM officials to identify lands that could be suitable. The administration has pushed to accelerate data center infrastructure development despite public backlash and mounting fears around artificial intelligence.

Public lands in the U.S. are required to be managed for multiple uses, which have historically included mining, logging, energy production and livestock grazing. Building data centers on public lands is unprecedented, however.

Some of the proposals are for projects under development on a mix of private and public lands that have approvals from local officials. But local officials and advocates in Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming told The Sun they weren’t aware of many of the projects.

In Utah, a nuclear energy startup appears to be proposing two data centers powered by small nuclear reactors. In Arizona, BLM is considering four proposals for data center-related infrastructure that could collectively use more than 3,000 acres of public land.

Almost all of the proposals appear to be in early stages. A BLM spokesperson said each proposal will be evaluated under the National Environmental Policy Act process to ensure potential environmental impacts are “understood, disclosed and appropriately addressed.”

“This process helps protect natural resources while enabling responsible infrastructure development that can deliver benefits to the American people, such as expanded broadband capacity, improved electrical reliability, and support for growing technology-driven economies,” the spokesperson said.

The NEPA process includes public notice and a comment period, though the Trump administration has rolled back NEPA regulations and narrowed opportunities for public input.

Exact locations for the projects, as well as the scope and size of each project, will be publicly available once the NEPA process is underway. So far, only one data center on public land has been approved, and that project, in Nevada, is on hold following a legal challenge.

While some projects involve building full data centers on public lands, others would involve only infrastructure to support data centers. In Wyoming, Prometheus Hyperscale has submitted proposals for rights-of-way for an access road, telecommunications line and water pipeline on public lands.

The largest proposal appears to be a 10,200-acre project from Valar Atomics, a nuclear power start-up that has received support from the Department of Energy for their efforts to quickly develop technology for small nuclear reactors.

That company is proposing a data center co-located with small nuclear reactors at a site near Green River, Utah. Valar Atomics has a second proposal for another data center combined with nuclear reactors in Utah called the “Raceway Gigasite,” which doesn’t currently have an estimated size.

Valar Atomics has publicly announced a smaller project with Nvidia that they say will show off technology meant to conserve water.

Valar Atomics did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

There is little public awareness of those projects in Utah, said Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of HEAL Utah, an environmental advocacy group.

“It’s really, really hard to find information about this stuff, and I think it’s representative of the way the industry in general is operating with a lack of transparency that I think is really deeply concerning,” she said. “Both the AI industry and the nuclear industry, which seem to be in this unholy alliance right now.”

Other proposals include four data center-related infrastructure projects in Arizona, one data center in Idaho, at least three in Nevada and one in Oregon. At least four projects are proposed by Copia Power, a developer that has historically worked on renewable energy projects. Copia withdrew a proposal for another data center in Wyoming this summer.

Copia declined to comment for this story.

In Idaho, Rhea Data, a subsidiary of Nevada-based Arevia Power, proposed a 4,000,000-square-foot multi-building data center on 3,226 acres of public lands a few miles south of Boise, according to a BLM spokesperson. The development would include a natural gas power generation facility and electrical facilities to connect to the Idaho Power Company, a local utility.

That project is also connected to a sprawling utility-scale solar energy project proposed by another subsidiary of Arevia Power, which is also seeking a right-of-way on public lands, according to BLM.

The data center projects raise concerns among environmental advocates that new data centers will increase energy rates for locals, and that the data centers and nonrenewable energy sources that could power them will intensify pollution.

“If there were to be more [data centers], I honestly don’t know what that would even look like,” said Lisa Young, director of the Sierra Club’s Idaho chapter. “Would that mean even more gas plants? Would that mean turning back on coal plants longer? What does that mean for our water resources? It’s honestly kind of apocalyptic to think about.”

Arevia Power did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

In Oregon, BLM is considering a right-of-way application from Copia Power for a data center on public lands. Data centers are no stranger to Oregon, where 142 centers are operating or planned, according to an April Pew Research Center study.

But Ben Brint, the senior climate program director at the Oregon Environmental Council, had never heard of using federal public lands to build one.

“In Oregon, this would be a really bad precedent,” Brint said. “Some very large percentage of the state is public lands, and if we’re starting to allow that, that’s large swaths of the state that really could be at risk of further development.”